AAGPBL News

Player/Profile Search

Last Name

Category

Position

Team

Hometown State/Province

Year

A Tribute to Joyce McCoy

A Tribute to Joyce McCoy(Barnes) Local Hutchinson News April 2014

Joyce was a junior in high school when she got wind of this new W omen's Baseball League organizing in near-bye Chicago. Phillip Wrigley the owner of the Chicago Cubs Baseball club was sending out scouts all over the US.

Since Hutchinson was such a small town, Joyce wrote to Ken Sells, Wrigley's advertising manager, and was given the info to attend a try-out at Wrigley field.Joyce, along with her mother, was told to report to Room 412 in the Wrigley building. She did try out that first season, 1943, and was assigned to the Kenosha Comets. She was paid $40.00 a week which was a lot of money in those days. Joyce was only on the team for a brief period of time and only played in 1 game against

the Racine Belles. She was a pitcher.Joyce was released for another player and told she could come back again, but she returned to finish high school and fell in love and married and never returned to the AAGPBL.

When asked why she had tried out for the league, her response was'” I did it for the War effort”. The League was often involved in the support of troops in WW II and visited hospitals and played against Army teams at various bases in the vicinity of their travels. The had a symbolic “V” for victory tribute to the men in uniform at every game and played the Star Spangled Banner to honor those those who were serving in the armed forces.